Review: A Throne of Swans by Katharine and Elizabeth Corr

Aderyn is the new Protector of Atratys, her home dominion in a place where nobles can transform into birds. But since witnessing the death of her mother six years earlier, Aderyn has been unable to transform, threatening her place as Protector of Atratys. She is determined to discover what happened to her mother and travels to the Citadel to find out. But once she is there, she discovers that some things are better off not known, and finding out the truth has put her at great risk...

This was wonderful. A really original twist on a fairytale story. I loved the whole idea of nobles transforming into birds, and the world-building in this story is great. It's detailed and interesting. The change in Aderyn's character from the beginning to the end is great - she really comes into herself and does what she has to do to protect her kingdom. Highly recommend this.

Review: The Other You by J. S. Monroe

Kate was a super-recognizer for the police, identifying dangerous criminals with perfect reliability. But after a car accident that caused a serious head injury, Kate is unable to recognize people anymore... not like she used to. She finds solace in Rob, who has nursed her back to health and makes her feel safe. But one day, she looks at Rob and she just knows, with absolute certainty, that it's not him. Has her ability to recognize people come back? And who is this person living in her house?

This was just okay. The blurb sounded really good and I was excited to read it, but the 'big twist' is revealed in the first chapter, and the rest of the story was just quite slow. It's a particularly long book too, and so much of it was unnecessary. The story-line with the detective's son, for example - no relevance whatsoever, and ultimately unresolved. The ending was better, much more exciting, but it doesn't save the rest of the story.

Review: Gravity is The Thing by Jaclyn Moriarty

Ever since the disappearance of her brother fifteen years ago, Abigail has been receiving mysterious chapters from ‘The Guidebook’ - a self-help book that claims to help you learn how to fly. She is invited to an all-expenses paid getaway for readers of ‘The Guidebook’, to find out the secret of life, and just maybe, put together what happened to her brother all those years ago...

This was so odd. So odd. I just could not get into it at all. The story is very fragmented - really short chapters that jump back and forth between past and present and with no real links between them. To be honest, the only reason I continued reading the book was to find out what happened to the brother, but even that was disappointing. It was revealed in the last couple of chapters and everyone just seemed to accept it.

This book was odd. No real drama and very fragmented and hard to follow.
       

Review: The Pact by Amy Heydenrych

This book was amazing - I couldn't put it down!

Well, maybe amazing is the wrong word... terrifying is probably more appropriate. Freya has worked hard her entire life, and all her hard work is about to pay off - she has been offered her dream job at a trendy tech start-up. But from the first day, her colleague Nicole has an attitude... and Freya can't figure out why. As she gets closer to her dreamy colleague Jay, and Nicole grows more and more aggressive, they decide to get their revenge by pulling a prank on her... and Nicole ends up dead the next morning. Constantly looking over her shoulder, Freya begins receiving threatening messages... someone knows what she did, and they aren't going to let her forget it...

This was a gripping story, full of twists and turns and with interesting characters that you can't help but root for. I'm normally pretty good at figuring out the plot of these thriller novels, but I couldn't guess the ending of this, and it was a genuine shock. What an ending! Highly recommend this.

Review: With The Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

Emoni is seventeen, has a two year old daughter and is struggling to keep up in school - but she wants to be a chef more than anything. But trying to raise a two year old alone, living with a grandmother who suddenly has more doctors appointments, and a blossoming relationship that might be more trouble than it's worth, Emoni isn't sure that she can hold everything together...

This was a truly lovely book. This was different from anything that I have read before, but it was an excellent book that gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling by the end. I loved Emoni and her 'Buela - they are wonderful characters that were varied and kept the story interesting.

The selling point of this novel is the food woven throughout - recipes and references that are soulful and nourishing. This was a beautiful story, and I really enjoyed it.

Also - how stinking beautiful is this cover?!

Review: The Nursery by Asia Mackay

Alexis Tyler is a wife and mother, trying to hold everything together. But not only that, she is also an operative for the Government, saving the country on a daily basis and killing anyone who threatens the safety of the United Kingdom. But holding it all together is harder than it seems - her husband is starting to suspect her and the cracks are starting to show. Can she figure out how to balance a job that she loves and the family that she is desperate to hold onto?

This was a really great read. I didn't read the first one in the series, 'Killing It', but you didn't really need too - the story was separate from the first one and easy enough to pick up on it's own.

I really enjoyed the main character - Lex could easily be a real-life person, and the struggles in her day-to-day life are just so relatable, even if her job isn't. The storyline was gripping and definitely kept me hooked. The ending was excellent - I certainly didn't figure it out and it was a fantastic twist.

The story ends on a cliffhanger, suggesting that there's going to be a third book, and I'll definitely be looking out for it - this was a brilliant read.

Review: Summerland by Lucy Adlington

I read 'The Red Ribbon' by Lucy Adlington a couple of years ago, and I loved it so much that I was really excited to read this book, too. This was a wonderful book of journey, identity, and most importantly, love.

Brigitta has lost her mother to the war and is now being escorted to England with the Red Cross, where she hopes to find a new life. But more than that, she is also hoping to find answers to questions that she has had for many years. When she reaches Summerland, the large manor house that she will now call her home, she realises that she has been hiding for too long, and she is determined to be herself for the first time in a long time...

This was a truly lovely story, about a child looking for love and acceptance after being caught up in the horror of war. Brigitta hints at secrets that she is keeping throughout the book, and I could not have guessed at what those secrets were. What a twist! The ending of this book is hopeful and it was worth the read. Just excellent.

Review: Home Truths by Susan Lewis

Angie had the perfect life - a loving husband, wonderful children and a happy home. But her oldest son gets into trouble - drugs and gangs - and all of a sudden she finds herself drawn into a world that she never knew existed. When the worst possible tragedy occurs and her son goes missing, Angie finds her perfect world comes crashing down, and she will do whatever it takes to ensure that her younger children never know the terror she has experienced...

Oh my goodness, this book. 5 stars is not enough - it was incredible. It was a harrowing account of how close normal families can be to homelessness and struggle. I feel incredibly privileged to have absolutely no idea how the benefits system in this country works, but reading this book has made me question everything that I know about it, and how it effects those that rely on it everyday. This book has made me feel grateful for everything that I have in my life, and I won't stop thinking about it for a long time.

Review: The Possession by Michael Rutger

I'm very disappointed by this book. I will give any book a go, and I really hate to start books and not finish them, but that's exactly what I did with this one.

It's just boring. Of the chapters that I did read, there were at least two that were just talking about the history of stone walls. STONE WALLS. I get that the walls are important to the story (I presume, I didn't even get that far in), but do they really require entire chapters written about the history of them, which is spotty at best? I think not.

I got to almost 100 pages in and nothing has happened. The main characters have arrived in the town and wandered around, met some strange people, and that's it. I know that 100 pages isn't massively far into the book, but it's quite far in to have had nothing major happen yet.

I'm not the type of person to give up on reading books, but I won't be picking this one back up.

Review: The Holiday by T.M. Logan

While on holiday with three of her best friends and their families, Kate suspects that her husband is having an affair. And worse, she suspects that it's with one of her best friends. Determined to discover the truth, Kate begins to dig into her friends' lives, but soon realises that there is much more at stake then she thought...

This was a fantastic book. Interesting, gripping and with a deeply-layered story with many twists and turns. This book definitely kept me guessing - I thought I had the ending figured out, but this is definitely not going to end the way you think. There are many issues touched upon in this story - friendships, relationships, secrets, teenagers and children, there are many aspects to this that kept the story interesting.

I've given it 4 stars instead of 5 because the ending was slightly too 'out there' for me. Only in the sense that it was COMPLETELY different to what was happening throughout the story, and it did make sense with the story, but there was something slightly too 'out there' about it.
       

Review: The Man Who Didn't Call by Rosie Walsh

Wow! This book was so full of twists and turns that I couldn't put it down.

Sarah has a complicated past, a thriving business and is in the middle of an amicable divorce. So when she meets Eddie and falls head-over-heels in love after only a week, she lets herself feel truly happy again for the first time in a long time. But then Eddie doesn't call from the airport, and even though it's only been a week, Sarah knows that something is wrong. Turns out they both have a complicated past, and one of them is to blame...

This book was incredible. I love that it dived immediately into the story, and flicked back and forth between before and after, between Sarah's point of view and Eddie's. I thought for sure I had the big twist figured out, but it turns out I had completely the wrong end of the stick, so the big twist was genuinely shocking.

The pace of the story in this book was excellent, and the representation of grief and mental health is really important. This was a fantastic book that I would highly recommend.

Review: The Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen

Augusta and her twin sister, Julia, have always been close, but they're polar opposites. While Julia wants to settle down and lead a simple life, Augusta wants... more.

Parfait has fled his war-torn homeland and is living as an artist in Spain, but he feels guilty about leaving his family behind. When tragedy strikes that reverberates across both of their lives, they come to realise that they are both missing half of themselves...

This was a really delightful book. The parallel stories of Augusta and Parfait are told really well, and are entwined in a delicate way. It took me a while to work out the connection between them, but once it became clear, it all came together quite quickly. As opposite as Augusta and Parfait are, it was tragedy that brought them together, and the difference in their characters at the beginning and the end are quite stark.

So much stuff happened in this book that it took me a while to figure out how I feel about it, but this book was genuinely lovely, and it was enjoyable to read. I sped through it because I was desperate to find out how their story ended.

Review: Our Stop by Laura Jane Williams

Nadia is stumbling through life. She has a great job and great friends, but she always misses her 7:30 train and has started Her New Routine To Change Her Life more times than she can count. Obsessed with the Missed Connections section in the newspaper, she pours over it everyday... until one day she reads one that sounds like her, right down to the coffee stains on her dress. And so begins a series of back and forth messages that may just lead to a connection, as long as they don't miss their stop...

This book was just okay. I liked the idea of the story but everything just took so long to happen - I mean, they don't even meet until the last couple of chapters! All the near-misses and almost-meetings were fun to start off with but after a while I was like 'come on! Are we meeting or what?' It became a bit tedious.

I also didn't really love Nadia - was it really necessary to mention how much money she makes on like the second page of the book? It had no relevance to the story whatsoever.

I had high hopes for this, but it didn't quite meet my expectations.

Review: The Woman Who Wanted More by Vicky Zimmerman

Kate is 40 years old, her perfect relationship has fallen apart and she's had to move back in with her rude, judgemental mother. Her job is on the line, and to take her mind off things, she begins volunteering at a retirement home. There, she meets Cecily, who is 97 and is not afraid to speak her mind. Stubborn Cecily lends Kate a recipe book that might just change her life - just as it changed hers so many years ago...

I'm very undecided about this book. Granted, I don't believe I'm the target audience, and that definitely has an effect, but there are other reasons, too. It was very slow to start off with - Kate spends the first third or so whining about how awful everything is, and when she finally listens to Cecily, she realises that a lot of it is self-inflicted. The last third of the book was much better - the story was more interesting and Kate came on a real journey. I also like that everything didn't just go back to the way it was - Kate really learned some important life lessons and Cecily got to share her wisdom and life lessons with her.

I think I would have loved this if I was older, but I'm not, so I didn't.

Review: Your Deepest Fear by David Jackson

After returning home from a trip, Sara Prior listens to the messages on her answering machine, and hears the exact moment that her husband is brutally murdered, after leaving her a confusing final message. Determined to find out what happened, Sara starts putting the clues together, but it soon becomes clear that some things are just better left alone...

This was not for me. It sounded really good, but it didn't live up to my expectations and didn't really draw me in at all. I think part of the reason for this is because this is the fourth book in a series - something that I didn't realise until I was reading the acknowledgements at the end. The fact that this is part of a series is not mentioned anywhere on the cover.

All that being said, this was well-written. It was action-packed from the beginning and full of twists and turns. The tension kept building until the secret was revealed at the end, but again, this didn't really have the massive impact that it should have. I finished it just for the sake of finishing it, to be honest.

Review: Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

Isabelle is an ugly stepsister, and everyone knows it. Her and her sister, Octavia, were awful to Ella, and now that she is married to the King of France, the ugly stepsisters are alone. But Isabelle wants to be pretty. More than anything, she wants to be beautiful, and so she makes a deal with a fairy queen and sets out to find the lost pieces of her heart. But with some meddling from Fate and Chance, it may be harder than she thinks...

When I first read the blurb of this book, I was really excited about it. I love a retelling of a fairytale, and this was a really interesting premise - focusing on the ugly stepsisters instead of Cinderella. The storyline was really good, and I enjoyed the ending -  even ugly stepsisters can have a happy ever after.

Having Chance and Fate be physical characters was an interesting touch as well - they were able to meddle with Isabelle's life and sway her decisions, one way or another, and this meant that Isabelle had to work twice as hard in order to become who she was meant to be.

A really fantastic book.

Review: The Forgotten Sister by Caroline Bond

Cassie knows that she is adopted - she's known it all her life. But at 17, she's curious about her birth mother and sets out to discover what she can about her. Convinced her parents are lying to her, Cassie digs into her past, but she uncovers more than she ever thought possible...

I read 'The Second Child' by Caroline Bond a couple of years ago, and that was heart-wrenching, so I suspected that this would be much of the same, and I was right. There is so much feeling in this book - you can completely sympathise with the characters, and everything that they go through it just so real. The relationships between the characters are so lovely - I adore the closeness between Cassie and Erin. As a big sister myself, I completely understand the protectiveness there.

I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 because Cassie is a 17 year-old girl and makes some silly choices, but ultimately her heart is in the right place. The circular ending of this book is incredibly powerful - where will the vicious cycle end? Highly recommend this book.

Review: Night by Night by Jack Jordan

After a tragic accident that she caused, Rose Shaw has lost everything. She is no longer living, she simply exists in a house where she is ignored and hated. Then one night, she literally collides with a man who leaves behind a journal, documenting the stalking of a young man who fears for his life. Rose is determined to figure out the truth - it may be too late for her, but it might not be for Finn...

This was a roller coaster of a book. So much happened in the first couple of chapters and I thought that was going to be the basis of the story, but it just kept building up and building up. I couldn't put it down - every time I reached the end of a chapter I'd think 'just one more' and before I knew it hours and hours had passed.

One thing I will say - I didn't like Rose. At all. She was selfish (I mean, she literally caused the accident) and spent most of the time feeling sorry for herself instead of trying to make amends with people. Similarly, the 'big twist' wasn't quite as shocking as it was made out to be, but it was still pretty good. Highly recommend this thriller.

Review: The Rules of Seeing by Joe Heap

Nova has been blind her entire life, but is convinced by her brother to have an operation that will restore her sight. After, Nova discovers that seeing isn't everything she thought it would be. In the hospital, she meets Kate, who's dealing with her own issues, including an abusive husband. As the two of them begin to entwine their lives, many secrets are revealed, and some are more dangerous than others...

I really enjoyed this book. It is very different from what I was expecting and from anything I've read before. I found Nova's descriptions of her blindness, and it's varying levels, to be really interesting. The relationship between Kate and her husband is complex, and the violence was well-written - reading it made me feel genuinely quite tense. I also liked that in theory, these characters shouldn't work as a couple - they're so different, and yet somehow they do. Their relationship is a very slow burner, but the result at the end is so worth it.

My one grievance - what happened to the husband?! That story ended kind of abruptly. Apart from that, this was an excellent book.

Review: The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary

‘It was never home until you were there, Tiffy.’

This is one of those feel-good, warm and fuzzy books that you can devour in one sitting. Which I totally did.

The premise is simple: Leon is a palliative care nurse who works nights and weekends. Tiffy is an editor who works 9-5 weekdays. He needs the cash and she needs a room. Talk about two birds with one stone! But Tiffy and Leon soon come to realise that living together but never actually meeting comes with it’s own problems. Throw in an obsessive ex-boyfriend, a jealous current girlfriend and a brother in jail for a crime he says he didn’t commit, and you’ve got one hell of a story!

This book is 400 pages long, and I read it in one go. Well, 300 pages in one go, fell asleep, and the last 100 pages immediately on waking up. It was so good!
The characters were just delightful and so complex.

One thing I would say - I would have loved to hear from Holly and Mr Prior in the ‘two years later’ epilogue! How are they getting on? I guess we’ll never know.

Everyone should read this. It was heartwarming.

Review: Beneath the World, a Sea by Chris Beckett

Ben Ronson is a police officer who has been sent to the Submundo Delta to investigate the killing of Duendes - strange, humanoid creatures with long limbs and a strange psychic effect on the mind. But to get there, you have to pass through the Zona - a journey of a couple of days that you will have no memory of whatsoever when you come out the other side. Locals say that your deepest, most repressed thoughts and desires come to pass here, and Ben is concerned about what he will do while he is in the Zona...

This book was so weird. Like, seriously so weird. The story sounded so promising, but it just fell a little bit flat, to be honest. Essentially, this book is about the human mind and how it can lie to itself - none of us can ever know who we truly are because we are taught to act in a certain way. I thought there would be more mention of the Duendes, but we don't find out much about them at all. They are almost like secondary characters to the main focus of the story: the Zona and it's effect on the human mind. The human characters of the story aren't much better either - they had no real depth and were just kind of dull.

I was really disappointed by this book, despite it's gorgeous cover!

Review: The Secret Runners of New York by Matthew Reilly

Having recently moved to Manhattan, Skye is struggling to fit in with the young elite that make up her new private school. Her brother, Red, has no problem at all, and quickly climbs the social ladder without her. But then a scientist predicts that the world is going to end, and as doomsday approaches, Skye realises that the line between rich and poor isn't as important as she thought...

I loved this. It was such a fantastic concept, and it has been written so well. I love the time-travel element (the clique have access to a portal that transports them 22 years into the future), and the glimpses that we get into New York of the future. It's these glimpses that make the book genuinely terrifying. There are some quite gruesome scenes too, and the action goes from 1-100 very quickly.

In all honesty, the first third of this book was a bit slow, but the rest was fantastic - I couldn't put it down.

Review: The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

Sabrina turns up to her thirtieth birthday party to find that her fantasy dinner party has come true - she has been joined by her best friend Jessica, Conrad (her philosophy professor), Robert (the long-dead father that she's never met), Tobias (the love of her life), and her celebrity hero Audrey Hepburn. As time ticks on and the wine starts to flow, it becomes clear that everyone is here for a reason, and Sabrina needs to face some truths that she cannot bring herself to admit...

The ending of this book was heart-breaking. But the rest was just okay. It took a long time for things to be revealed, and it was essentially just about the relationship between Sabrina and Tobias. Audrey Hepburn's character, for example, didn't really need to be included at all. The story would have progressed and ended in exactly the same way without her.

I also didn't really like Sabrina's character - she was selfish and naive. I guess that was the point, but we didn't really see her redeem herself by the end. The redeeming quality of this book was the detail in Sabrina and Tobias' story, which was truly lovely.

Review: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Don is thirty-nine, a geneticist and he has some questionable social skills - but he's looking for a wife. As a scientist, he figures logic is the best way forward and devises an extensive questionnaire that will help him find his perfect partner. A friend sets him up with Rosie, a slightly eccentric thirty year-old who Don quickly dismisses as a potential wife. But they begin to spend more time together, and Don quickly realises that he is experiencing feelings that he cannot explain...

This was a delightful book. Just delightful. Both Don and Rosie are complex, interesting characters, and to watch them be thrown together and wait for the resulting chaos was truly interesting. I couldn't put this book down - it was full of twists and turns, particularly in regards to Don and Rosie's relationship.

Honourable mention must go to Gene - Don's best friend and complete womaniser. I would have liked to see more of his relationship with Claudia... an older couple in an open marriage isn't exactly a commonplace thing, and I would have liked to see this explored some more.

Overall, highly recommend! :)

Review: The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

I'm very conflicted about this book. I wanted to love it because I love the ACOTAR (A Court of Thorns and Roses) series, but I'm really struggling. All the advice I read said that I should read this book first before the main Throne of Glass series, so I did but I think that was a mistake.

I went into this completely blind, so I had no loyalty or feelings for Celaena, and to be honest, she didn't come across well. She's a spoiled, selfish seventeen year-old and I found that quite irritating. Don't get me wrong, there were aspects of her that I liked, but most of the time she was just annoying.

As I said, I haven't read the main series yet, so I feel like I would have appreciated this book more if I had read a couple of the main series first, so I had some sort of grounding. I don't know. I'm gonna read something else before I start the actual Throne of Glass series, so hopefully that will give me some time to figure out how I feel about this book.

Sidenote - Celaena did not deserve Sam! He was so nice to her and she was awful to him!

Review: The Colour of Shadows by Phyllida Shrimpton

Saffron is seventeen, spoilt and selfish. While looking for family photos in the attic, she discovers that her father has been lying to her about what happened to her mother, who disappeared 10 years ago. Unable to forgive him, she leaves home but quickly finds that she has nowhere else to go. Still, she's determined that she won't go home until she finds out what happened to her mother...

I have real issues with this book. The biggest one being Saffron, the main character. I can't stand her. She blows up when she finds out her father's secret, doesn't give him the chance to explain, and then runs away like a three-year old having a tantrum. She expects her friends to take her in, her brothers to bring her money and spends most of her time bitching about her step-mother.

One of the redeeming qualities of this book was Tom, one of Saffron's childhood friends. He was a fantastic character with a complex history. That, and the attempts to address the issue of homelessness, are why I've given this book three stars. But even Saffron's character development doesn't make up for the fact that she's a bratty teenager.

Review: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine. Really, she is. She goes to work, eats the same meal deal, drinks two bottles of vodka on a Friday night and wakes up on a Monday ready to do it all again. But one day, by complete coincidence, she meets Raymond, a middle-aged tech support worker who introduces her to new things, and forces her to confront things that she has tried very hard to forget...

But this is not a love story. It is a story primarily about loneliness, and about the best and worst that humankind has to offer.

This was an amazing story, but it took me a while to get into it. For the first third or so, I didn't really get where it was going, I didn't get the point. But after that, it became very clear very quickly, and now it has become one of those books that I will continue to think about, even though I've finished it.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It is just one of those feel-good books that will stay with you for ages after you finish reading it.

Review: The Wicked King by Holly Black

Jude has bound High King Cardan to her for a year and a day, to look after the throne while her brother grows up. But he despises her for this, and has taken it upon himself to make her life as difficult as possible. Despite this, the two of them have feelings for each other that neither one can explain, and this only makes ruling a kingdom even harder.

I really enjoyed this book, but I have given it four stars for two reasons: the first is that I found Jude really quite irritating. She's incredibly selfish and makes rash decisions without really thinking things through. The second is that cliff-hanger ending! It's brilliant, but it's annoying that the next book isn't out until next year.

I like the fact that we get more details about Elfhame in this book, and we find out more about how the ruling family is linked directly to the throne. I also like the fact that we find out more about the other courts in Elfhame. This book is full of twists and turns, and it was hard to put down.